Undeserved Faithfulness

What a great day! Got to spend the day with my friend Kathy and catch up on life! I was able to attend my friend's father- in- law’s funeral. It was an awesome service to honor Jay Supp on a life well lived for his Lord! Got home and in the mail was our appt to get our Fingerprints done again from Homeland Security and then someone sent us a very generous gift to help with our adoption expenses. Feeling very overwhelmed by God's faithfulness to me when I am so unfaithful!

Lamentations 3:22,23,24  Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning, great is your faithfulness. I say to myself " The Lord is my portion" therefore I will wait for him!

A Whisper

This post is from a different blog, but I loved it so much, I felt like I'd share it with you! Click here to see the original post and the blog it's from. It's really an amazing blog!

Revised from last year .... December 29 .... in memory of December 29, 2009....

Just a whisper. A Holy Spirit breathed whisper. A longing. A stirring that began years before but began to grow louder and more insistent as time passed. Adoption. One day we said. One day. Later. Too busy now. Our days too full. Not enough money. Not enough time. Later. Much later. When the boys are gone. When we finish our current projects. When our bank account is above 0. Another day. Not today.

All good arguments but the whisper stayed. The stirrings continued. The voice wasn't silenced. The God-ordained encounters with those who had gone before kept happening. Consider. Just consider. Pray. But... but...no... can't... not.... all the arguments. Mental gymnastics. The money God. Where? It can't work. Our boys. It's crazy. We are broke. Our business is tumbling down. We are consumed with our side projects. Our schedule is insane. Dear Lord - it's just not the right time.

Louder. No longer a stirring but a wave. A push. An emptiness. A realization that we lacked. Something. Someone. Our lives were full of nothing. Crazy chasing after useless dreams. Circling - protecting our boys from what? Our spiritual lives - Church - worship - tithing - going through the motions. For what? Our passion gone. Realization of our empty cup.

Then a picture. A smiling face. A helpless child. The Holy Spirit whisper becomes a scream.

GO GET HIM. HE'S YOURS.

This child. In that country. GO. Now. Say yes. Despite the bank account. Despite the schedule. Despite the arguments. Despite it all. GO.

Two years later. Our 'whisper' celebrating Christmas with us. Our son. Our child. Our little brother. Ours. But more than Ours - God's. His child. His son. His treasure that He called out of darkness. To our family.

Godsightings: The Post Office

Well, posting on this blog makes me nervous but I guess I need to! The last ten days have flown by. It started last Friday when I stopped by the Perkasie Post office. I was standing in line and got chatting with a young girl. I quickly found out that she just moved here from Ukraine in the past year!

It seems that God brings someone across my path that has to do with Ukraine often. I feel that it's God's way of just letting me know that He cares for these boys on the other side of the world and for me!

Next, this past week we had a friend of Keith's from High School drop by that we haven't seen in like 10 years and his family is from Ukraine! It is getting kind of funny.

Then today I stopped by Calvary Church to drop off a form for camp this summer and there was a young guy at the desk talking about going to Ukraine this Summer for a mission's trip to help orphans! All of these encounters I know are just God's way of encouraging us to keep on keeping on.

The past 3 weeks have been filled DAILY with paper work! We were able to get our Home Study finalized, printed and shipped off to our government office in Texas! They estimate that if all goes well we could be in Ukraine by June! Please pray that God would continue to direct our steps. There are so many things that could go wrong. Please pray that we would have wisdom and that God would direct our path!

This week I will be working on the last group of paper work. It feels really good to be at this point. The middle section of paperwork was difficult, but is done! Each step takes time and we need to get to the Ukraine sooner than later with Igor turning 18 in September. Please pray that it will go well and be done right.

Listen, my son, accept what I say, and the years of your life  will be many. I guide you in the way of wisdom and lead you along straight paths. When you walk, your steps will not be hampered; when you run, you will not stumble. Hold on to instruction; do not let it go; guard it well, for it is your life.

Proverbs 4: 10 - 13

Love Cradle Prayer Requests

Excerpts of prayer requests from Love Cradle Ministries Prayer Letter for Dec. 1, 2011:

 

Please pray as Love Cradle continues to actively seek suitable buildings/homes in central Ukraine and the Crimean region for the establishing of orphan transition/foster homed. These homes will be life-lines to aging out orphan children... providing Christian based education and programs as well as permanent and temporary housing... these homes will be advocacy/counseling centers for the orphan. Also, they will be a base from which to develop grass roots orphan business projects.

IMPORTANT... Pray for the families that are moving forward in their preparation to journey to Ukraine... pray for the orphan children they are trying to help. We pray our Lord's mighty intersession on their behalf.

Please pray for the Love Cradle staff and volunteers here in North America/Western and Eastern Europe. Pray that their efforts will be greatly blessed and that through their work many orphan children's physical and spiritual needs will be cared for.

Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.

Isaiah 1:17

Did You Know?

Did you know that by age 22, 60% of Ukrainian orphan males will have been in prison?  70% of females will be involved in human trafficking or prostitution, while 10% will commit suicide.

By age 17, Ukrainian orphans must leave the orphanage to find work, housing, and food.

Ukraine is the 2nd largest nation in Europe. There are approximately 46 million people and 100,000 orphans,

Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all the unfortunate. Open your mouth, judge righteously, and defend the rights of the afflicted and needy.

Proverbs 31:8-9

News Article!

In summer 2011, an article was run in our local newspaper about the orphans that came to visit from Ukraine. You can click here to read the whole article!

Did You Know?

Thousands of kids in Ukrainian orphanages face a bleak future. These children long for a family experience, even a temporary one. Despite good care in the orphanage, few are prepared to start a life when they leave the orphanage at age 18, as they are provided with neither a higher education nor vocational training which will serve them in finding gainful employment once on their own. As a result, many innocent children leaving Eastern European orphanages are co-opted into drug dealing, the sex trade, or organized crime.

And whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me

Matthew 18:5

How It All Began....

In March of 2011, we were invited to a dinner by Keith's cousin to hear about Rainbow of Hope's hosting program.  At the time, we felt as if it would be an interesting evening for our family to hear about what God was doing through this program and in the lives of orphans.  The information we learned there was impressive but we left feeling overwhelmed because we didn’t think we could meet all the expected requirements involved in hosting an orphan in our home.

We initially thought we would offer our home as a “back-up” opportunity in case one of the host families weren’t able to keep their child for a day here and there.  But after weeks had gone by, we felt that God was really prompting us to consider this ministry for our family. 

Then one Sunday morning, we unexpectedly ran into some friends at our church who had hosted an orphan the previous summer who we rarely saw because the size of our church.  It was as if the Lord was saying “talk to them”!  The next night we received a phone call from these friends informing us that they had designated the remaining funds from their hosting experience the previous summer to our family!  A few days later a family member came forward to offer the balance of what we needed to be part of the hosting program.  So God removed what we perceived as the major hurtle and we were amazed and believed that being part of the hosting program was His will for our family.

Being a host family to Roman was another amazing adventure.  We had no idea what to expect.  We had no idea that we would fall in love with this little boy.  We didn’t realize that in the end, we were the ones who would be so deeply and forever blessed and changed.  In the four weeks he was in our home he became part of us.  We became a family of five and life would never be the same. 

After inquiring about the adoptability of Roman, we learned he had a 17 year old brother, Igor.  God showed us that He wanted us to adopt them as a sibling group.  Since then, we’ve had quite an education in what’s involved in international adoption.  Forms to fill out, signatures in blue ink, phone calls, notary signatures, adoption classes, medical, FBI & other clearances even for our dogs, home studies, proving the size and adequacy of our home and finger printing are just some of the steps we’ve been taking to bring our sons home.

God knows our hearts and what He has called us to do.  It has been so exciting to watch as He’s brought us through this journey so far.   It’s been scary and challenging but God continues to provide and bless. Thank you all for your interest and prayers. 

The prayers and financial support of our family and friends has been amazing and it’s been incredible to see how God has and continues to provide.  Here are a few prayer requests.  Please pray for Roman and Igor as they wait, that God would prepare their hearts and would prepare our hearts as well.  Also, we believe we’ll be traveling to Ukraine in June to process the paperwork. So pray that things would go smoothly while we’re there and that Kevin and Hannah would have a good time with their grandparents while we’re gone.